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E-NewslettersDriving B2B with Mark Morley
Are Car Manufacturers About to Take Build to Order Mainstream?
Over the past year there has been a significant increase in the number of companies looking to introduce build-to-order rather than build-to stock inventory management systems. This increasing trend has been confirmed by the number of visitors I have been getting to my last blog on this subject which I wrote early last year. This [...]
Read moreEDI Basics – a New Beginning
I have been with GXS for just over four years now and when I joined GXS in April 2006 I was keen to learn more about EDI and how companies use it to exchange electronic business documents. Now you would think that as EDI solutions and services have been around for over forty years that [...]
Read moreAutomotive B2B Developments at Odette25
Last week I attended the Odette Conference in Munich Germany. The conference is targeted at all B2B, ICT, Supply Chain and Logistics professionals across the automotive industry. This is the fourth time that I have attended this conference since I have been at GXS and although the conference has downsized since my first conference in [...]
Read more111th EDIFICE Plenary – Value Chain Collaboration in the Telco Industry
Over the past couple of days I have been attending the 111th EDIFICE Plenary. The subject of this plenary session was ‘Value Chain Collaboration in the Telco Industry’. EDIFICE is an industry association that helps to drive B2B standards across the high tech industry sector. Each year they hold a number of plenary sessions to [...]
Read moreJaguar Land Rover Extend Their Manufacturing Operations into China and India
Since Jaguar Land Rover was taken over by Tata Motors of India in March 2008 they have been on a roller coaster ride. Trying to sell luxury cars during an economic downturn and selling large 4×4 vehicles to an increasingly ‘green aware’ consumer have both been a challenge. However earlier this year JLR started to [...]
Read moreEarth Day 2010 – What are the Latest Green Trends in the Automotive Industry?
So Earth Day is upon us once again, its 40th anniversary. Given the importance of Earth Day to mankind and the global economies I was expecting a rush of press releases from the car manufacturers to link in with what is recognized as the most important day in the ‘green calendar’. I was expecting to [...]
Read moreEarth Day 2010 and the Volcanic Ash Cloud Effect – a Timely Reminder to Develop Greener Supply Chains?
There have been many great disaster movies in recent years, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and Deep Impact, but even the Hollywood producers could not have written a script to describe what happened in Europe over the past few days. The eruption of the volcano in Iceland led to a huge ash cloud covering most [...]
Read moreUnwrapping the New Daimler and Renault-Nissan Alliance
In my last blog entry discussing Geely’s acquisition of Volvo Cars from Ford, I highlighted a new trend that was starting to emerge across the global automotive industry. Far Eastern automotive companies, keen to get a better understanding of western automotive technology, were starting to embark on acquiring western automotive companies. Meanwhile the extensive M&A [...]
Read moreGeely acquires Volvo Cars, what will this mean for the global automotive industry?
On 28th March 2010, Geely signed a $1.8Billion deal with Ford to acquire their Volvo car business. Now this is significant for two reasons, firstly it represents the largest deal that a Chinese automotive manufacturer has made to acquire a western car company. Secondly it also brings to an end a 20 year cycle of [...]
Read moreB2B Automation Across the Manufacturing Industry
B2B automation can mean different things to different companies. For example some companies will say that they have automated B2B processes but very few have applied B2B solutions across every business process that may be operating across a manufacturing operation. It is one thing being able to automate internal business processes, for example providing improved [...]
Read moreWhich Technology Trends will Drive Growth in the High Tech Industry in 2010?
The high tech industry is emerging from one of the toughest economic downturns for years and many high tech manufacturers are hoping that 2010 will be a year of growth for the industry. Over the past twelve months many CIOs decided to postpone technology refresh projects and now that the worst of the economic downturn [...]
Read moreImproving Visibility Across Toyota’s Supply Chain
It has been an interesting few months watching the recall related events unfold at Toyota. What started out last October as a simple recall to sort out a problem with an accelerator pedal getting stuck underneath the floor mats of their cars has now turned into Toyota’s largest ever recall. Toyota emerged from the recent [...]
Read moreB2B Challenges Across the Manufacturing Industry
The global manufacturing industry has been through a significant period of change over the past couple of years. The most recent economic downturn has led many manufacturers to re-think their business strategies and look for ways to streamline supply chains and of course reduce costs. This blog will briefly discuss the manufacturing industry today and review [...]
Read moreHow Would Larry King Host a B2B Related Talk Show on TV?
Well first of all I would like to wish you a Happy New Year, I hope you enjoyed the holidays!, I expect like me you may have over indulged on food over the holidays and no doubt seen many hours of television over this period. I saw a number of TV shows over the holiday [...]
Read moreFrom Outsourcing his B2B Infrastructure to Adopting Web2.0, it has been a busy year for Santa Claus
Well it has been just over a year since I reported on how Santa was planning to outsource the management of his B2B environment to GXS. Project Dasher, (as the B2B outsourcing project was called) would include on-boarding numerous trading partners, linking to several Present Distribution Hubs around the world, provide integration to an SAP [...]
Read moreJaguar Land Rover Design a New Sledge for Santa Claus
Last year Santa chose GXS to manage his B2B infrastructure in order to try and streamline his present sourcing and delivery service. I posted a blog last Christmas that explained the core components that made up Project Dasher, Santa’s code name for his Outsourced B2B environment. Santa reviewed the performance of his 2008 present delivery [...]
Read moreWill the World’s First 4G Network Accelerate the Adoption of Mobile B2B?
The 14th December 2009 was an important day for the mobile telecommunications industry, it saw the launch of the world’s first commercial 4G network. There have been many 4G network trials around the world over the past couple of years, but the new 4G network developed by TeliaSonera , which has been setup in Sweden [...]
Read moreImproving the Management of Inter-Continental Automotive B2B Transactions
Today’s automotive industry has operations in all major economies around the world. Whether it is in the more established markets such as North America or Europe or the newer automotive markets such as China, India or Russia, each region has had to establish communities of trading partners to support the new car manufacturing plants. Many western OEMs such [...]
Read moreHas your company appointed a Chief Social Networking Officer yet?
Well I guess the Chief Social Networking Officer (CSNO) role will be created at some point!, after all in recent years a number of new CXO level positions have been created to help manage the extended enterprise. In June for example, at a conference in London, I heard IBM talk about the importance of the Chief [...]
Read moreAre B2B Standards About to Enter the Clouds?
In an earlier post about cloud computing I started to talk about the continued development of SaaS based B2B applications. In the past two weeks there have been a couple of interesting developments in the cloud computing space. Firstly two weeks ago, an initiative was launched in Europe called EuroCloud. EuroCloud is essentially a new [...]
Read moreChinese Manufacturers Embrace Web2.0
The other day whilst reviewing my Facebook page I noticed an unusual banner advert appear on the right hand side of my profile. Now I am not sure how the advert knew that I had a manufacturing related marketing role at GXS but I was intrigued to say the least! The advert, shown opposite, was promoting [...]
Read moreNew AMR Research Study Shows that 40% of Data Feeding Automotive Related ERP Systems is Sourced Externally
In my previous blog entry I discussed a new research project which was recently conducted by AMR Research and was sponsored by GXS. Yesterday GXS announced a press release regarding this important new research project with AMR Research. The survey was conducted by 121 multi-national companies and the distribution of the respondents can be seen [...]
Read moreNew AMR Research Study Shows that 90% of High Tech Companies Experience Delays with ERP Projects Due to B2B Integration Issues
Earlier this year I posted a blog entry which discussed how ERP projects were being delayed due to B2B integration issues. I also went on to explain how B2B outsourcing could be one path for companies to take during complex ERP related implementation projects. Since I wrote those blog entries I have been working on a research study with the [...]
Read moreDeveloping Greener High Tech Supply Chains
Earlier this year I posted a blog entry discussing the outlook for the high tech industry in 2009. I discussed how many of the computer and electronics manufacturers were starting to embrace the whole ‘green thing’ so to speak. Today, there is a growing trend by the computer manufacturers to develop low cost, smaller, more [...]
Read moreMeasuring the Performance of a High Tech Supply Chain
Whilst reviewing the high tech industry news over the weekend I found an interesting article which discussed how to monitor and improve the performance of supply chains in the high tech industry. Now as we know, today’s high tech supply chains have become global in nature, mainly due to the need to lower operational costs by setting up manufacturing plants [...]
Read moreNissan Develops EV Based Mobile Communications Hub
So what happens when you combine the brain cells from experts across the high tech, automotive, consumer electronics and telecommunications industry?, well you get the world’s first mobile communications hub, based around a new Nissan Electric Vehicle, called EV-IT. The car is due to be revealed at the unveiling of Nissan’s new Global HQ in [...]
Read moreB2B Adoption Across the Global Steel Industry
Over the past couple of weeks I have been taking a look at the global steel industry and reviewing how it has adopted B2B solutions and services over the past few years. I guess in some ways you could compare the steel industry with the EDI industry. Steel is one of the underlying materials used [...]
Read moreApple iPhone 3G S, is this the mobile B2B platform that we have been waiting for?
I read an interesting post over on InformationWeek yesterday that was talking about how Apple had re-introduced their online Inventory Tracking Tool to let consumers see where they could buy the new iPhone 3G S in North America. The tool is updated every hour to allow potential customers to see the latest availability. Looks like [...]
Read moreDeveloping a Future Proofed B2B Environment for Jaguar Land Rover
Just over a year ago Ford sold its luxury car brands, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to Tata Motors Limited, India’s largest vehicle manufacturer, in a deal estimated to be worth $2.3Billion. In a blog entry that I posted in March 2008, “Ford says Tata to Jaguar Land Rover”, I provided my thoughts on the sale [...]
Read moreFrom General Motors to Government Motors
Well this has been an interesting week for the automotive industry, GM finally announced their move into Chapter 11 and they also announced that a number of their brands have been successfully sold off. GM entering bankruptcy proceedings had been widely predicted for many weeks but will the $30billion injection of government funds be enough to help [...]
Read moreHow B2B Outsourcing Can Help Keep ERP Projects on Schedule
In my previous blog entry I highlighted a number of business drivers that could lead a company to want to outsource the management of an ERP/B2B integration project. In the last of my ERP related blog entries, well for now at least!, I will take a look at some of the key areas where B2B [...]
Read moreWhat are some of the key drivers for integrating ERP and B2B systems?
In my previous blog entry relating to ERP I discussed how the automotive industry has become so reliant on these systems for running their day to day manufacturing operations. Implementing an ERP or B2B system are the two most labour intensive IT projects that can be undertaken by a company. Quite often, ERP projects will [...]
Read moreBig Red 1 – Big Blue 0, Sun Rises Over the Enterprise Server Market
It has been an interesting month in the enterprise server market, in my previous blog entry I discussed the consolidation in the high tech industry with IBM, at the time, making a bid to buy Sun Microsystems. Well that deal fell through, however yesterday, Oracle showed their trump card by acquiring Sun for $7.4bn. I [...]
Read moreConsolidation Earthquake Hits Silicon Valley’s OEMs
Over the past few weeks there have been a number of stories relating to the high-tech industry, in fact more stories relating to the big computer OEMs than I have seen in the last few years. One of the more significant rumours doing the rounds is that IBM may be about to buy Sun Microsystems [...]
Read moreAbout Me – Mark Morley
As director of automotive industry marketing, Mark leads GXS’ strategy in the automotive and industrial manufacturing sectors. In this role, Mark defines the go-to-market strategy for GXS’ B2B e-commerce and integration solutions within these sectors. Mark works closely with automotive organizations and standards-bodies such as the American Industry Action Group (AIAG) and ODETTE in Europe [...]
Read moreThe Importance of Integrating B2B and ERP Platforms in the Automotive Industry
Integration, this is an important word on the minds of many CIOs around the world, and yet many companies underestimate the importance of it, especially when trying to implement and work with countless back office systems. Let me try and compare a company trying to use a mixture of different back office systems to a musical orchestra. [...]
Read moreGXS Honoured by AIAG
GXS was one of only five technology vendors to be honoured by the North American Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) yesterday. Based in Southfield, Detroit, AIAG is a unique not-for-profit organisation providing an open forum for members from all layers of the supply chain to collaboratively resolve critical issues in the automotive industry. GXS was recognised [...]
Read moreBuild to Order or Build to Stock?
This is the important question that many car manufacturers will be asking themselves over the next few months. We have seen numerous news stories over the past year relating to increasing inventory levels, with new cars continuing to roll off the end of production lines only to end up spending months in large storage compounds. Only last week [...]
Read moreThe Hunt for Cash in the High Tech Industry
In my previous blog entry I highlighted a number of trends that are likely to affect growth within the high tech industry in 2009. As with other industry sectors, many high tech companies are starting to seek out alternative revenue streams from areas which may not have been so attractive during the boom period a [...]
Read moreHigh Tech Industry Outlook for 2009
For the last three years I have been taking a keen interest in what has been happening in the automotive sector. This year however, as explained in my previous blog entry, I will be taking a look at the B2B trends and business drivers within the high tech industry as well. Now, being one for buying [...]
Read moreEDIFICE and Odette, Working Together to Standardise B2B Processes Across the High-Tech and Automotive Industries
Over the part few years I have primarily been working with companies in the automotive industry, however this year I will have an opportunity to work more closely with some of our high-tech related customers as well. There have been some dramatic changes in the automotive and high-tech industries over the past 12 months, with [...]
Read moreHow can MMOG/LE improve B2B processes across a supply chain?
So what does MMOG/LE stand for and how is it used? Well, the MMOG part stands for Materials Management Operations Guideline and was initially developed by the Automotive Industry Action Group in North America (AIAG). The LE part refers to Logistics Evaluation and was developed by the European Odette organisation. When combined, MMOG/LE provides a [...]
Read moreBarack Obama, Driving Change in the North American Automotive Industry
As well as moving into a new home next week, Barack Obama will be acquiring two new presidential limousines courtesy of GM. In the past, these limousines have been given to the incoming President as a gift, however these cars could possibly be the most expensive in history as the U.S Government has just loaned billions of [...]
Read moreApplying Social Networking Tools Across a Supply Chain
Over the past few months, social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter have received a lot of press coverage around the world. Only yesterday for example a passenger on a ferry in New York, Janis Krums, took a photo of the U.S Airway’s Airbus 320 which crash landed in the Hudson River. He took the [...]
Read moreSanta Signs up with GXS! – Part2
In my previous blog entry I discussed how Santa Claus chose GXS to implement an outsourced B2B environment. Santa’s new B2B environment, implemented through GXS Managed Services under the name of Project Dasher, was rolled out over a number of stages. The first stage of this project was to connect all of Santa’s Present Distribution [...]
Read moreSanta Signs up with GXS! – Part1
We received an interesting RFP a few months ago from none other than Santa Claus himself. Over the years he has developed what can only be described as one of the world’s most efficient supply chains and distribution networks. Santa and his elves spend all year making toys in his factory at the North Pole [...]
Read moreCan India save the Automotive Industry?
There was an interesting article in the UK magazine Autocar a couple of weeks ago which discussed the growing automotive industry in India and that despite the downturn in many markets around the world was continuing to see significant investment from OEMs and their suppliers. India probably offers the best location for car companies to [...]
Read moreWhy Divested Companies Should Consider Managed Services
In my previous blog entry relating to divestitures, which can be read here, I discussed how divested operations have a number of options relating to the management of their B2B infrastructures following a period of divestiture. Divested operations essentially have three possible directions they could take for running their B2B infrastructures following divestiture. Firstly, they [...]
Read moreDeveloping a ‘Green’ Multi-Modal Logistics Network
Over the past few years there has been a lot of ideas from the car manufacturers on how they can produce more environmentally friendly cars. In the last year alone, nearly every car manufacturer has shown some form of hybrid or electric vehicle design, but what are the truck, bus and rail companies doing to [...]
Read moreAnd so, the automotive industry carve up begins…
This is a key week for the North American automotive industry, not just for Ford, Chrysler and GM but for the automotive supply chain as well. On December 5th they will return to Capitol Hill to restate their respective cases for their share of the proposed $25 billion bail out for the North American automotive [...]
Read moreHow do you manage a B2B environment during a divestiture?
This is a question being asked by many companies at the moment as they are being forced to restructure their businesses due to the current economic downturn. Many companies, especially the well established manufacturers in automotive, high tech and industrial equipment markets have been in business for many years. But how do you unravel a [...]
Read moreTomorrow’s Forecast, Continuing Cloudy…..
Don’t worry I am not going to enter into a meteorological discussion here, I wouldn’t want to bore you that quickly!, There seems to be a rush of software companies starting to jump on the cloud computing band wagon recently and only today, Microsoft provided some updates on their ‘Office in a Cloud’. Many software [...]
Read moreOFTP2, the next big thing in Automotive?
Over the last few years there have been a number of new communications protocols that have been developed but for some reason they all seem to have varying degrees of success with getting any sort of market penetration. At Odette 2008, OFTP version 2 (OFTP2) was discussed in a number of presentations, but will this [...]
Read moreWeb Portals versus EDI, the debate continued at Odette 2008…..
This year’s Odette show was held in Strasbourg, on the border between France and Germany. The theme of this year’s event was ‘Transcending Physical Borders’, looking at how automotive companies are dealing with the problems of working across different country borders. As well as an exhibition area, where GXS had a stand, there were a [...]
Read moreThe ‘Green’ Supply Chain, it’s coming, much sooner than you think…..
Over the last few years the ‘Green Movement’ has been gaining considerable momentum, what started out as news reports concerning holes in the ozone layer has now manifested it’s way into every part of our lives. It was photos such as the one below (showing polar bears on a melting iceberg in the arctic) which [...]
Read moreCan you tell me when my spare parts will be delivered please?
This is a common question heard in many car repair and service centres around the world. The same question is asked in computer repair shops, aircraft maintenance hangars, and construction equipment repair depots. Many customers expect to be able to go into a repair shop and simply buy a spare part off the shelf there [...]
Read moreEurope’s Production Slowdown
In recent weeks there has been a dramatic downturn in car production levels across European car plants. Many OEMs are paranoid about falling into the same trap that some North American OEMs fell into earlier this year when they had stock piles of cars which were not selling. A combination of high fuel prices, downturn [...]
Read more‘Reverse Globalisation’ Podcast
The economic downturn in many regions of the world has led to many manufacturing companies re-thinking their globalisation strategies. In fact in recent months many companies are starting to follow a path of ‘reverse globalisation’ in order to reduce shipping costs and introduce better efficiencies across their supply chains. To discuss the reverse globalisation effect I [...]
Read moreImproving Part Identification to Reduce the Trade in Counterfeit Parts
A couple of weeks ago I discussed the counterfeit parts trade, a global problem where the centre of operation for producing these parts tends to be in the Far East. So what can be done to reduce the number of counterfeit parts that are being traded around the world? Let’s split this discussion into two [...]
Read moreWill Chinese Manufacturers Become ‘Greener’ After the Olympics?
During the build up to the Olympics there were a lot of articles in the press about how supply chains around the world would be impacted by the games taking place in China. My colleague Bryan Larkin wrote a couple of excellent blogs on this very subject, one of which can be found here. Bryan [...]
Read moreTracking Counterfeit Parts in the Aftermarket Sector
Over the past few weeks I have been undertaking some research into the aftermarket parts market and it was interesting to uncover how counterfeit parts have infiltrated many automotive supply chains around the world. The global market for counterfeit parts has grown exponentially over the past five years and is now worth around $16bn a year worldwide, [...]
Read moreIndia Calling.
Over the past few years India has grown into one of the leading offshoring/outsourcing regions, with banks, telecommunication providers and IT companies establishing a presence in the region to take advantage of the highly skilled and relatively low cost workforce that resides in the region. Many British banks for example have established their call centres [...]
Read moreRebuilding an OEM’s IT Infrastructure.
There was an interesting article over on InformationWeek a few days ago. As you probably know by now, GM along with Ford and other manufacturers are currently trying to find ways to prop up sales of their fuel hungry SUV and pick up trucks. Due to the high price of oil, many of the vehicle [...]
Read moreServing the Automotive Aftermarket
GXS has B2B solutions to help any automotive company, no matter what their size or where they may be located in the automotive value chain. A typical representation of the automotive value chain is shown below. But what happens when the customer picks up their new car and six months down the line they need [...]
Read moreAnother Global Challenge Begins
There are three automotive industry “mega-trends” at the moment, firstly a need to improve economy and reduce emissions, secondly a need to improve safety and finally a need to improve “consumer connectivity” to in car entertainment systems. The last trend is being driven by consumers who are keen to connect their mobile phones and MP3 [...]
Read moreThe Great Broadband Divide
Over the weekend I saw an interesting programme on TV about the levels of Broadband adoption amongst small businesses. This programme focussed on one particular country where small companies felt their business was suffering due to inadequate high speed internet connections and a communications infrastructure that, in places, was heavily dependant on a network of [...]
Read moreSpiralling out of Control !
I am of course referring to the global economy. The banks here in the UK are predicting that we are on the verge of a recession, interest rates are likely to remain at the same level until 2010 and the price of petrol has reached £5 a gallon! Now if you are a relatively small [...]
Read moreAnalysing the Q1 North American Automotive Sales Numbers..
Now this blog entry is not suppose to be a maths lesson!, I thought it was an opportune moment to review the performance of the North American automotive companies during Q1 and take a quick look at the external influencers that are impacting their recently released quarterly results. So let’s take a look at the [...]
Read moreThe Importance of Getting the Correct B2B Infrastructure in Place
Last week I was fortunate to be able to visit China for the first time. I was presenting at our ASPAC CIO summit in Hangzhou which is about two hours south of Shanghai. The event brought together about 20 of our key customers in the ASPAC region to allow us to update them on GXS, [...]
Read moreB2B in the Automotive and High Tech Sectors, and so the Convergence Begins
Over the past couple of years there has been a significant convergence between the automotive and high tech industry sectors. Satellite navigation systems, entertainment systems, mobile phone and iPod integration, today’s consumer is partly helping to drive the convergence of the automotive and high tech industry sectors. So I thought it was about time I [...]
Read moreIT Priorities for the Automotive Industry in 2008
Many executives in the automotive industry were glad to see the back of 2007. This was a year which saw immense change within the automotive industry. Slow growth in most markets, numerous acquisitions and mergers, companies going out of business and significant workforce reductions in both the OEMs and their respective supply chains. Despite their [...]
Read morePerformance of Established and Emerging Automotive Markets in 2007
OK, well as the 2007 vehicle production figures are starting to filter out I thought it was time to provide a quick review of the production performance of the established and emerging automotive markets around the world. 2007 was quite a turbulent year for the automotive industry and there were a number of surprising facts [...]
Read moreFord says “TATA” to Jaguar and Land Rover.
Ford finally said goodbye to two of their automotive brands on 26th March 2008, the Indian conglomerate TATA took control of the two luxury British car brands in a deal estimated to be around $2.3Billion. Jaguar and Land Rover were the cornerstones of Ford’s premier automotive group, however due to tough economic conditions Ford has [...]
Read moreB2B Outsourcing, A European Perspective.
So after a brief sabbatical, I thought it was time to start blogging again In recent weeks we have been running a series of Executive Briefings across Europe to showcase a recent study that we conducted with Stanford University. Late last year we completed a research study with Stanford which looked at the area of [...]
Read moreFord’s Premier Automotive Group, What Happens Next?
So the big news this week is that Ford are thinking of selling Jaguar and Land Rover, two iconic car manufacturers which have been at the heart of the British motor industry for many years. Ford is currently going through major restructuring and despite significant investment in trying to turn around the fortunes of Jaguar [...]
Read moreSoftware as a Service, SaaS, Will it See Widespread Adoption in the Automotive Supply Chain?
Today’s automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers are trying to find ways of simplifying B2B infrastructures, make them easier to deploy on a global basis and at the same time ensure that all suppliers are able to use the same B2B solution, no matter what their B2B expertise may be or where in the world they may [...]
Read moreContinuing to Drive B2B Outsourcing Through the Automotive Supply Chain.
In recent months we have seen an increased interest from Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive suppliers wishing to outsource the management of their B2B infrastructures. Automotive OEMs are asking their key Tier 1 suppliers to take on more solution based work, for example producing entire transmission, drivetrain and suspension systems for delivery to their [...]
Read moreB2B, The Next Generation
Just in case you think I am about to review a new Star Trek movie!, I am actually going to draw comparisons between old and new generation car models and how some of the characteristics of these cars are similar in many ways to how GXS has evolved over the years. The automotive industry has [...]
Read moreAutoTech Review – Part 1
This was the first time I had visited AutoTech so I didn’t really know what to expect, but as it turned out, the format and presentation subjects were very similar to the Odette conference that I attended in Munich last year. AIAG claimed that there were around 1000 registered for the event but in a [...]
Read moreAutoTech Review – Part 2
The second part of my AutoTech 2007 review takes a look at some of the presentations that were made during the event. In addition to the presentations made by the various OEMs, there were also presentations from numerous AIAG project teams, reporting back on the progress made on their projects. In addition there were also [...]
Read moreDetroit Bound, GXS Sponsor AIAG AutoTech 2007
So no sooner do I get back from a two week holiday, I fly out to Detroit to attend the AIAG Autotech 2007 Show. AutoTech is one of two major B2B related Supply Chain Management shows this year, the other major one is Odette which is taking place in Prague in late November. This year’s event [...]
Read moreMobile EDI, Can the Apple iPhone Deliver?
Over the last decade we have seen immense progress in the development of handheld computers. One of the first ones I owned, way back in 1996, was the Psion5. In its day it was being used by many companies for running basic office applications and allowing employees to keep in touch with the office via [...]
Read moreOdette 07, the Leading B2B Conference for the Automotive Industry
Every year GXS attends the Odette conference, event website, the leading B2B conference specifically aimed at the automotive Industry. This year the event is being held in late November in Prague, Eastern Europe, quite a timely event given that this region is one of the fastest growing automotive manufacturing regions in the world. GXS will [...]
Read moreCan Private Equity Companies Run a Global Car Company?
History is littered with car companies that have been bought and sold, some being more successful than others, some no longer exist and once iconic brands have now bitten the dust. Many car companies received significant government incentives in the 1960s and 70s to establish their plants in particular regions or countries and some car [...]
Read moreFord’s Premier Automotive Group, Will Jaguar & Land Rover Be Sold?
So the big news this week is that Ford are thinking of selling Jaguar and Land Rover, two iconic car manufacturers who have been at the heart of the British motor industry for many years. Ford is currently going through major restructuring and despite significant investment in trying to turn around the fortunes of Jaguar [...]
Read moreWhat is Inside a Data Centre?
I was fortunate to visit one of our data centres last week, we were holding a partner event at our office in Amstelveen, Amsterdam. GXS have a number of partners across Europe who resell our solutions (and I will discuss this in more detail in another blog entry), this provides us with the ability to [...]
Read moreBack to EDI School!
When I was at school, yes I know many years ago now!, I always found it difficult to try and find the right information at the right time. Whether this was to complete a classroom exercise or finish some homework, it always seemed to take a long time to find the information I was after. [...]
Read moreChrysler, So What Happens Next?
The biggest news in the automotive industry this week is that Chrysler has finally been sold to a private investment firm called Cerberus Capital Management for $7.5Billion. Compared to all the other bids that came in for the company the private investment option probably represents the best opportunity for Chrysler to finally turn around their [...]
Read moreWill “Virtual B2B Trading” Ever Takeoff?
So this is an interesting concept, if it were possible to conduct B2B trading in a virtual world, would companies use it?. Well according to this story over on silicon.com it may not be that far away. The virtual world Second Life , is a computer generated virtual world with nearly 6 million “residents” and [...]
Read moreHow “Green” is Your B2B Environment?
Now just in case you think I have turned into some sort of “tree-hugger” since I last posted, I found some interesting articles this week on how companies are trying to run environmentally friendly B2B infrastructures. We all know that the politicians are working hard to persuade the automotive industry to develop environmentally friendly cars [...]
Read moreA Need for Low Cost B2B Infrastructures
There was an interesting article posted over on BusinessWeek Online a couple of days ago, highlighting the need to develop ultra low cost cars for the emerging markets. Renault & Nissan have just announced that they want to manufacture a small car in India with a retail price of $2500. According to the Monitor Group, [...]
Read moreWhen to Outsource B2B Infrastructures
Today’s car manufacturers face a constant challenge to sell more cars and at the same time reduce costs in order to become more competitive in the market place. Over the years, OEMs have had to change the way in which they manufacture cars and source components from suppliers. It no longer makes sense for a [...]
Read moreB2B Standards, Why So Many?
Global standards, regional standards, communication standards, document standards, the list is endless, no wonder the automotive companies are finding it difficult to develop their global B2B infrastructures. Today’s IT managers face a daunting challenge when told by their management teams to integrate an overseas operation into their B2B infrastructure. This all started many years ago with [...]
Read moreNew Markets, New B2B Infrastructures
Well I have just finished my weekly review of the automotive news websites, trying to keep up with the fast pace developments in the world of automotive manufacturing. It is always interesting to find out what the OEMs are planning, its like watching a giant game of chess unfold in front of your eyes. Companies [...]
Read moreThe RFID Challenge..
So I have spent the last couple of days preparing for a media interview this morning on RFID usage in automotive. Now I don’t claim to be the world expert on RFID but from the various articles and websites that I have seen over the past 48 hours it is clear to me that there [...]
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